Page 113 of Lesson Learned

“You know, the good thing about coming from money is there’s always a built-in safety plan.” His fingers leave my hair to seek my hand, entwining with mine, raising it to his lips for a kiss.

I lean further into him, giving a gentle laugh. “Sure. I’ll have to remember that for my next reincarnation.”

And he bends his lips to whisper into my ear. “Would you like to be part of my family?”

The idea is beautiful and soft and secure but it’s also stark and brutal and filled with untold dangers. Over the past days, I’ve seen some of the man he’s hidden from me up to this point. There’s a lot there to be wary of. A lot of unknowns whose answers might scare me.

I hurt someone yesterday, too. Hurt them badly, then turned them over to him to finish what I started.

The knowledge seeps into my brain like an oil stain leaking into dry cement. I can already sense it changing me. Turning me into a before and after photo with a million subtle differences.

Conner’s eyes are cautious, waiting for my response. I know the same caution lingers in mine.

“I’d love to marry you, Paisley, but I know you’re young. If you prefer, I could just open an account in your name and fill it with as much money as you need to provide a safety net.”

“You want to buy me?”

“No,” he says, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead. “Nothing like that, sweetheart. But I want to do whatever you need to make you feel safe enough to come away with me. If that’s an education, we can find a better place to go to school. If that’s money, you can have money. If it’s connections, I’ll introduce you to some of the most powerful people in the world. If that’s a family, I’d love to be your family. I’d love to welcome you into mine.”

And he’s being so open, so gentle, so lovely, that I take a deep breath and reveal my fear. “You barely know me. Once you do, you might get sick of me.”

“Never.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Maybe not.”

The stark admission is what I expect, but it still hurts a little to hear it.

Then he tips my head back, kisses me gently on the lips, and adds, “But I’m happy to spend a lifetime proving it’s true.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

CONNER

A chinkin the curtain lets a brilliant sliver of the morning sun through, hitting me directly in the face. I stir, feeling the soft breath against my neck as Paisley gives a little snore, then falls into a deeper slumber.

The girl sleeps like the dead. Eight hours minimum per night and once she’s out, it takes a monumental effort to wake her.

I cautiously roll out of her arms, stretching before resting my head on my bent arm, watching her. The same sight I’ve woken to every day since we reached the villa in Greece close on a year ago.

A sight I haven’t tired of yet and never expect to.

The thin sheet is too hot already, the room stuffy even with the open shutters in the bathroom. Soon, I’ll get up and throw the upstairs balcony doors wide, letting the morning breeze in to blow the worst of it away.

For now, I’d rather stay right where I am with the most delectable sight in the world laid out before me.

I lean forward, settling my hand into the sweet curve of her lower back, opening my mouth to fasten over her left breast, the topmost, sucking off the sweet slightly salty flavour of her skin. Even in sleep, she responds to me. Her fingers twine into my hair and she breathes out a tiny moan.

Her nipple stiffens inside my mouth, reacting to the flick of my tongue, growing harder with each pass. When I’m satisfied with its progress, I give it one last peck before rolling her onto her back, starting again on the opposite side.

The curve of her belly almost cries out for my hand to rest against it, to stroke it and feel the softness, to travel over the tender swell of her hip.

My fingers go further, dipping in between her legs, stroking along the lips of her pussy until her growing arousal allows me to slip inside.

As much as I love the brightness in her eyes when we relax in the evenings, arguing and agreeing over a range of fictional delights, entranced by the quickness of her mind, the leaps she makes that sometimes take me days to replicate, I also love her like this, with that fascinating brain shut off for the moment, recharging, forging new connections in its rested state while her body remains free to roam.

Sometimes, we still experiment. I get enough from her like this to not crave using the drugs like I used to, but we’ve tested other boundaries.

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